At the tale's end
by Jhon's Pen Mode
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata had arrived to the Grand Line from ther wolrd and need to find the way out where the world's end. And they need to do it quickly, or the they may lost something more than their lives. Full summary inside.


**Summary: **Namikaze Naruto is an 17 years old Special Jounin with remarkable talent in the Seal Arts, but this is nothing compared to his sister, Namikaze Mito, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune and a full fledged Jounin since 13 years old. Living with a cold and strained relationship with his family, Naruto decided to leave the Hidden Leaf, taking his best and only friend, Hyuuga Hinata, with him.

Who would knew that Fate had other plans, guiding the pair to another world, full of water and people with abilities as bizarre as powerful. How did they ended in this mess?

**Shipping**: NarutoxHinata, LuffyxNami, ZoroxTashigi, and others.

**Notes**: Enjoy my first crossover. Updates will be slow but hopefully they will be constant. English is not my native language, so many errors may pop up. This chapter is Unbeated.

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: **"Naruto"**

Thoughts: "_Then I will break that curse. If there's such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!"_

Jutsu/Techniques Names: **"Summoning Jutsu!"**

Silenced Jutsu/Techniques**: **_**"Summoning Jutsu!"**_

Bijū, Dragons and Summon Speech: **"Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"**

Bijū and Summon Thoughts:_** "I will enjoy it every minute."**_

**DISCLAIMER: **Naruto is not mine, sadly, in any shape or form, neither One Piece.

* * *

**"AT THE TALE'S END"**

**ARC 01**

**Chapter 1: Drift**

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata disliked many things, but hated few. Something, or rather someone, called Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto fall in the latter group. The reasons varied, and were known only to her, but one of the things that she hated the most was his annoying ability to look at her with those azure, crystal like eyes and ask her whatever struck his fancy at the moment making her, against her free will, to go along with it, i.e...

"Hinata-chan, what do you say about ditching everyone in the village and go around the world with me in an adventure?"

... like right now.

Leaving everything behind? Was he mad? He had done, and dragged her all the way, some crazy things in the past, but this... He was talking about committing treason so casually, for The Sage's sake! No. She would not fall for his tricks again. She would look at him in the eyes and would tell him to sod off. Yeah, she would show him that she knew better, and that he was crazy if he thought that she, one of the youngest and most powerful jounin of the Hidden Leaf, and he, a prominent tokubetsu jounin and the son of the Fourth leader of the same village, would ditch their hard earned achievements for some sort of sick, twisted satisfaction of an adventure. She would look at him and tell him...

"When do you want to go?"

... damn. She fall for it again. And, worst of all, he was grinning like the proverbial cat that got the canary, totally aware of what he did.

Oh well, at least she now knew for sure that she was totally in love with her long time blonde friend.

* * *

**(Tea Country)**

Getting out of the village was easier than Hinata thought, ridiculously easy. Then again, with the security protocols at their disposal, as the shift patterns, they were bound to have the advantage over their comrades. Still, if they return, and conserved their heads in the process, she will inform Namikaze-sama about the village security's flaws. That is if THEY return, because both of them will come back, or none will do.

At the moment, both were under a seven points webbed henge to look like fishermen that were gathering fishing supplies. Shiokaze Port was located at the southern shores of Tea Country, and was famous for the fish-abundant offshore waters.

The Webbed Henge Technique was a special brand of the normal Henge Technique, and was created by her sensei, Yuuhi Kurenai. It was common among the more experience ninjas to use many layers of henge to avoid an easy dispelling, but doing so was like mounting a henge on the top of another henge, like a pile, which tended to work just fine for ninjas with good control and above-average chakra reserves. Kurenai-sensei had control in spades, but her chakra pools were rather limited, and thus, she designed a way to use a multilayered henge without wasting chakra. The Webbed Henge was the result. Instead of putting henge after henge, she entangled the henges like a skein, wasting almost to none chakra, being able to use more durable henges with minor chakra cost.

The seven point webbed henge that they were wearing, meant that they were using seven entangled henges at once. It would take something rather powerful, like a S class hit or something, to dispel it, which was ideal for their needs. During the three weeks that they had been one the run, Naruto and Hinata had avoid detection of the Hidden Leaf, and the occasional Hidden Sand, tracking squads at daily basis. It was a matter of time before they were found.

"So, are you sure that you want these ship? If you are going to the southern currents, you will need something in better conditions. Here, I have another one that..." Said the old merchant that was trying to get more money out of them.

"That will not be necessary. This one will do. " Naruto cut him off quite eagerly.

The old merchant looked like he wanted to protest, but in the end decided against it. After few words, the deal was made, and both Naoto and Hamaki, their undercovered aliases, were the new proud owners of a fishing boat. Jumping in immediately, and preparing their 'fishing equipment', both men launched eagerly to a fishing spree, or so was the thought of those in the port that witnessed the whole ordeal.

It was after almost an hour when the pair decided to drop their henges, after checking that nobody was around, thanks to Hinata's eyes. They already had passed Tea's southern islands, and now were riding on one of the many 'rapid currents' that were common in the area.

While checking their supplies, Hinata allowed herself to ponder about her blond friend.

Naruto had been the first friend that she ever made back when she was the shyest person in Fire Country, and for a while he was the only friend that she had. He too was a lonely and quiet kid that didn't put too much effort in human interaction. Being the son of the village leader, Namikaze Minato, the Yellow Flash, was a powerful barrier that usually got in the way to make friends among kids your own age. Hinata, as the heir of the Noble Hyuuga Clan, could related to that to some extend. In many ways, they were similar.

Hinata's family sought perfection. The stronger you were, the better you could represent the clan to the world. Failures were not tolerated. To fail was equal of being weak, and the Hyuuga despised weakness. Hinata was weak. Maybe was her lack of will to hurt others, or maybe her family, her clan, cold demeanor and general attitude stunted her growth, but she never was able to meet up with her family, especially her father's, expectations. Not like her little sister Hanabi or her cousin Neji.

Naruto wasn't talented in the shinobi arts. But her sister, Mito, was. She, her twin sister and jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, was a talented kunoichi that was some sort of genius regarding the shinobi arts. She even became jounin at the age of thirteen, as proof of her skills. Hinata herself, as Uchiha Sasuke and Rock Lee, became jounin at the age of sixteen, while Nara Shikamaru and her cousin Neji became jounin at the age of fifteen. And all of them were considered a generation of geniuses. Naruto, in the other hand, was the dead last of their group. No matter how hard he tried, he never achieved anything above average. He even failed the chuunin exams four times. Maybe it was his lack of talent that created the rift between him and his parents. And the worst thing was that his family didn't noticed said rift.

Naruto had never show any signs of being bothered by the situation. Hinata had never seeing him cry, not even at Jiraiya's funeral when the old Sannin was KIA during an undercover mission in Hidden Rain.

Many called Naruto 'emotionally stunted', and it even was a subject of disagreement between him and his sister the few times that they saw each other. His ever present grin and carefree attitude was always present, cheering everybody around him, making brighter the day. Hinata knew better. She was his best friend after all, the holder of most of his darkest secrets. But it didn't help her one bit if she didn't knew how to help him. So, she stood at his side, even if the rest of the world didn't.

But at the moment, the girl was hard pressed to fulfil her oath under their current circumstances.

"Care to repeat that again? I think that THAT dangerous storm that is coming at us distracted me while you were saying something." The girl say calmly, way too calmly, while pointing a dense looking black mantle that was covering the ever approaching horizon, full of storm clouds.

"I said," Naruto answered, seemly oblivious of the frozen edge in his female friend voice, "that's the the direction that we need to go." Continued the blonde, pointing at the same direction where the raging storm was.

Hinata looked at him like a giant bowl of ramen had appeared above his head. The blonde checked to see if that was true, but was disappointed when he found nothing. The girl continued to stare at him for a full minute. It looked like she was about to tell him something but was interrupted when the boat shook for a second before gaining speed faster and faster... against the strong winds. And it was sailing to the storm!

It seemed that they had been caught in one of the undersea currents.

Naruto was grinning like a maniac, smiling so broadly that his face seemed to break. Hinata... the Hyuuga princess was fuming while sticking herself to the boat securely with chakra.

"_The bastard! He knew! He totally knew that this would happen! That's it! If we survive this I will kill him myself!"_

"YATTA!" screamed the blond, having the time of his life.

Hinata would disagree. The boat rocket, change direction and twisted at neck breaking speed in irregular intervals. Soon enough, the runaways were under the raging storm that was agitating the sea furiously. Hinata could see how waves of ten, twenty and thirty meters rised and fall around them. Getting ready to do some Water Style ninjutsu, the Hyuga was stopped by her friend.

"Wait, Hi-chan, don't do anything, we are almost there."

"What do you mean...?" But she wasn't able to finish.

Without warning, their boat started to ascend on a wave, until they were on it's crest. And then they fall like they were in a roller coaster. Just to rise again on another, bigger, wave. Many times in a row. Things as they are, Hinata did notice something that seemed off.

"_There is something wrong with this picture. The first wave that was 5 metres tall. The second was 10 metres, and the third was 15. It is impossible to ride on different waves in rapid succession that have the same exact height multiplied by successive factors. If I'm right the next one will be..."_

20 metres, followed by a 25 metres tall wave and then by a 30 metres one.

"Naruto, something is wrong. This is not normal!" Hinata yelled at the blonde, since the strong wings were too loud.

"This is the star of our adventure, Hi-chan. Normal is the watchword." Said the grinning ninja, chuckling in delight.

"Tell me what's going on!"

"I will not spoil the surprise! Wait and see."

Okay, Hinata was starting to really get pissed off. She was about to retort something when the fishing boat, which by some strange miracle had survive the ordeal, started to ascend on another wave, a 35 metres wave.

It was when they reached the crest, when everything went down south... literally.

Below the rising wave, at the end of a 55 metres fall, a huge whirlpool that could swallow the Shikaze Port at once.

"Naruto..."

"I know."

"There is..."

"I know."

"We are going to..."

"I know."

"_He is grinning. The bastard is grinning and his eyes are shining with excitement. We are going to die!"_

As cue, the small boat, in the middle of one of the worst offshore storms registred in recording story, started its descent into its destiny.

* * *

**(Unknown place, unknown time)**

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

The dripping noise woke her up with a start. First, she send a Chakra Pulse to detect anyone that could sneak on them. Finding none, she activated her Byakugan to confirm her situation. Five minutes later Naruto, who was stirring from his slumber next to her, woke up to find her with disbelief written all over her face.

"Good morning, Hinata-chan." Said Naruto in a way that, given in any other situation, she would have found extremely cute. But it was all it took to make her snap.

"DON´T GOOD-MORNING ME! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND! HAVE YOU ANY IDEA WHERE ARE WE?! WE ALMOST DIED! DIED! AS LEAVING THE WORLD OF THE LIVING! . . ?!..."

And her rant went on and on for the next five minutes. Naruto had been paling considerably with each treat that his mooney eyed friend came with. _She does know that what she says is physically impossible, right?_

"Etto… Hinata-chan, are you done? Feeling better?" Interrupted Naruto, who knew that he would never see a spoon the same way again.

"Actually, I'm. I really needed that." Stated Hinata, cracking her neck and feeling like some sort of heavy burden was taken from her shoulders. "You know where we are, don't you?"

"Actually I do. Hyuuga Hinata," said Naruto mocking a welcoming reverence, like he just invited her to his home, "welcome to a place that the Uzumaki had hidden from the world and a place that nobody had visited, let alone an outsider of the clan. This is the _Ryūgū-jō._"

"Ryūgū-jō_?_ Like the tale's Dragon Palace Castle?**(1)**"

And as unbelievable as it sounded, Hinata could see this place as something taken from a fairy tale. The brickwork in the floor and walls was like it was made of water. Everything was colored in the blues and green tones of the sea. She could even see some fine sculpted figures, the underwater wildlife that was common in the area, as other creatures that she did not recognised. But what mindblown her in the first place was ceiling… or the lack of it. Indeed, despite all logic in the rightful order of things, this place, this _palace_, did not have roof made of the same fine brickwork or any other material. No, what it had was the seawater itself. And somehow, it did not fall to crush them with the pressure.

"How it this is possible?!" Wondered Hinata aloud.

"Seals. That's how." Answered Naruto like the laws of physics was being violate at that very moment.

And… it made sense.

"_I knew that the Uzumaki were in a league of their own in the Sealing Arts. But this… this is something that cannot be fathom. It's not normal."_

And yet, Hinata founded herself amazed by what she was looking. Even if it not fitted in her normalcy, she could not deny its beauty.

"Feeling happy for coming with me after all?" Asked Naruto in a timid, nervous voice.

"_Is he scared by my reaction? Well, that's new. He is always confident in whatever he does." _"I'm, surprisingly. But how did you knew about this place?"

"Well, I read it in a book. A Children Tales' book to be exact."

"Are you serious?" Hinata answered, blinking at him owlishly, not expecting that. Then again, she should knew better.

"Don't stare like me like that. It was in one of the many folklore books that Kaa-sama brought with her from _Uzu no kuni_. I'm the only one that reads them at home so I had always wanted to visited the places that it mention."

And indeed, that's how it started, reading fantasy books when no one was looking, when his was alone with the printed words in the scrolls and books, seated in the far corner of the personal small library that the Namikaze Compounds had. And thus Naruto explained to her how he, reading these tales, discovered a hidden message. A map of sorts.

"There are other places like this, Hinata-chan, all around the Elemental Nations. The Uzumaki built these kind of places for some reason, though I don't know what it is."

"Now that we are here them, care to explore?" Proposed Hinata, to which Naruto agreed eagerly.

It wasn't long before they noticed that the undersea palace did not have rooms or bifurcations, only a long corridor that ended in a small square room with an altar in the center that towered them by at least 3 feet. The altar itself was like a pyramid trapezium, with a flat square end, or a platform, where a sole person could stand without the fear of falling over.

"I wonder what it's the purpose of such thing?" Commented Hinata. Somehow, she had the feeling that all this underwater palace was built for the sole purpose of this… altar of sort.

"I don't know, but I will find out. Get me a second."

"Wait, Naruto-kun. Let me check with the byakugan if there are any traps." Activating her eyes, Hinata confirmed that anything was out of place. Giving a nod to Naruto, she watched how the blond started to climbing up the pyramid.

She shouldn't have.

As soon as Naruto made up to his third step, a bright pillar of light came down to the platform at top of the trapezium, making Hinata to scream in pain, her eyes hurting too much before she shutted down her bloodline as fast as she could.

* * *

**(Tea Country, Shiokaze Port)**

It had been almost a month since Namikaze Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata went AWOL from the Hidden Leaf, and nothing had been found yet, mused Hyuuga Neji, Elite Jounin of the Leaf. Next to him were his teammates for this mission: Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino and Haruno Sakura. All of them Jounin as he was, all of them with tracking capabilities beyond that of their peers, their generation even. Four Jounin for a simple tracking mission, that's how important this one was.

After all, it was the son of their leader and the heiress of one of the most prominent clans in the Elemental Nations. A month looking for them, for clues that could point them to their whereabouts. All their clues ended cold in the port town that they were in.

"So, we don't have anything." Stated Neji with his usual stoic demeanor.

"I may have something." Started to said the pinkette teammate. "I overheard some of the natives talking about a pair of fishermen that were not from the town that bought a fisher's boat. They never returned and the biggest storm to date hit the shores short afterwards. The time match the period that we believe that Namikaze-san and Hyuuga-hime were around the area. And they never were seen again, so they could have travel by water."

"They may not be the ones that we are looking for, Haruno-san."

"Duly noted, Aburame-san. But we don't have any more clues to follow."

"Still, if they were Naruto and Hinata, it means that they weren't kidnapped but ditched Konoha on their on." Stated Kiba while bristling in annoyance. The mere consideration of fool play and treason made his blood boil in anger.

"Let's not jump to conclusions. But we are running out of options and, if they are truly acting on their free will then all this search could be futile." Said Shino in his mechanical tone that all of them were accustomed to.

"So, do we continued or we go back?" Wondered Sakura, sharing the same conclusion that Shino had come with.

But before they could discuss it further, they heard the steps of many people running to the shore. Looking at each other, nodding before jumping up the roofs and began to run were the commotion was.

They didn't need to.

In the far distances, miles away the cost, a huge and bright pillar of light ascended to the skies shining in the evening's horizon like it was the sun itself.

And as it came, it fade away.

It seemed that the circumstances had dictated their next course of action. They would have to go back ASAP and inform the Fourth about their finding, or lack of them, and this unknown phenomenon.

* * *

**(****Dragon Palace Castle****, underwater)**

The light had disappeared, but Hinata's eyes soreness hadn't. Still she could still see, and she watched how Naruto was standing up behind her. It seemed that he had been sent flying by the pillar of light, or maybe was the surprise that came with it that took him out of balance.

"**At LaSt YoU hAvE cAmE.**" It was a voice, but at the same time it wasn't. Its pitch was going up and down from one moment to the other, and it sound kind of backwards. The voice came from the altar, from the top of it.

There, where nothing was before, now stoop a person. Or maybe it was a ghost, because Hinata could see _through _the man. He was tall, and muscular. His well toned body was obvious even through the white and purple kimono that he was wearing. An ornamental sword was tied on his hip. The man's hair was spiky and long, pretty much like Jiraiya-sama's, but less abundant, and of a deep crimson shade. Lastly, his eyes were the most notorious of things, being of a purplish gray, very similar to those of Kushina-sama's.

This guy, whoever he was, was an Uzumaki if she had ever seen one.

"**It HaD bEeN a 1200 YeArs WaIt, BuT aT lEaSt yOu ArE hErE, nArUtO-kUn.**"

"You know me? Who are you?" Said Naruto as surprised as I felt, before I steeled myself for the worst. Somehow, they had entered into a well elaborated trap. Or so she thought.

Reality was even stranger than she believed.

"**Of CoUrSe I kNow YoU. aLl ThIs WaS mEaNt fOr YoU. I'm UzUmAkI kImIhIrO,**" Hinata noticed the gasp that the blond did when he heard the name of the stranger, "**tElL mE. WhAt Do YoU tHiNk Of BeCoMiNg a PiRaTe?**"

* * *

**(In another world, another dimension. Somewhere in the Grand Line)**

An old lady was in a meditative state. Eyes close, repeating an old mantra over and over again under her breath. Her long white hair and wrinkled skin gave her some sort of ethereal presence that only age could give to those that live the good life. Around her, many people, that by their clothing were most likely members of a tribe, were in the same position, repeating the same mantra that the old lady was murmuring.

Suddenly, the old lady opened her eyes, that for the briefs of moments shined with azure tenacity. Before passing out there and there. Before losing consciousness, the old lady muttered this words:

"IT'S COMING!"

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End of the chapter. What do you think?

(1) Look for the story of "**Urashima Tarō"**

Please leave your thoughts in your reviews.


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